Junior Assistant To The Minister - Again
by Ralinde
Summary: Percy's world is falling apart, but can he pick up the pieces soon enough or will he only fall deeper into the abyss?


_A/N: This is my fifth instalment on Percy/Audrey. For those of you who have not read any of the previous one-shots, here's a brief summary of my head canon universe and what has happened before: _

_After having had a huge row with his father at the Ministry, Percy quits his job, not wishing to encounter him anymore. With his savings, he rents a cheap apartment in the east of London. In a Muggle restaurant called 'Chez Maurice' he manages to acquire a job as a waiter (where his co-workers decide somewhere along the line that he must be a foreigner because he doesn't know about films etc.) and to get romantically involved with his co-worker Audrey. _

* * *

I.

"Look, it's not that you don't work hard – because you do – and you've made a lot of progress in the past months, but it's just…" Walker fidgeted with his tie, which Percy thought was a bad omen. If his boss was this nervous, then it wasn't because he'd bring good news. He inwardly braced himself for an imminent discharge.

"It's just that the government is checking more severely for unreported employment, especially in cafés and restaurants, and I can't have my business closed over it."

_And there it was._ Percy stared blankly at the desk in front of him. He'd known all along that this day would come, some day, but now that it did, he felt numb. He'd grown to love his job – the fact that it was where he had met Audrey might have had something to do with that, too.

"What am I to do now, then?"

"Usually, when I need to let someone go, I'd advise them to register to a public programme in case a new job doesn't present itself soon, but seeing as you still can't produce a legitimate id, that's out of the question…"

Percy nodded. He had figured that out for himself already as well.

"When do I leave?" he asked flatly.

"End of this month."

"End of this month? But that's in four days!"

"I really wish there was another way…" Walker was clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"Never mind. I'll manage," Percy said bitterly and left the office. He needed time to think about what to do next.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"It's ridiculous!" Audrey raged when she found out later that evening. "How can he just fire you like that, and with only four days notice?!"

"It's fine," Percy tried to reassure her.

"No, it's not fine. I don't even think that's legal. Isn't he supposed to give you notice at least two weeks in advance?"

"Perhaps. If it wasn't unreported employment…"

"Unrepor…" her eyes widened. "Oh Percy, how could you have been so stupid to accept that! Suppose something would have had happened to you!"

She sat down on the couch, clearly distraught. "How do you pay your rent?"

"Cash," he admitted. "The landlord doesn't ask questions as long as I pay on time."

Audrey shook her head in disbelief.

"What will you do now?"

"I don't know. Find another job, I suppose."

"One that's not illicit, I should hope."

"I'll try," he replied, but he already knew there was no chance of that happening. What company would ever legally hire an employee who didn't have any form of id? He was positively sure that it didn't work like that.

Three weeks had passed and as he had expected, Percy had not find himself a new – legal – job yet. He didn't have much money left and really needed to find something quick lest he'd be thrown out of his apartment. Lately, he had been toying with the idea of trying to get his old job at the Ministry back, but he had no clue if they would take him on again.

"You know, I've been thinking," Audrey said. "I've talked it over with my parents and my Mum reckons she might be able to get you a job as a Jack-of-all-trades at the company she works at. It's not a super exciting job, but it comes with social security and it'll help you pay your bills. In the meantime you can continue searching for another job."

"That's very nice of her, but…"

"What is it? Is it not good enough?"

"That's not it." He hesitated. "I don't think I'd qualify," he said in the end. "I don't have the papers."

She laughed. "You don't need to have any papers, silly, it's just doing little things around the office, like writing envelopes, fixing the printer when it breaks down again, faxing documents to other companies… Nothing too difficult, you'll get the hang of it soon enough."

Percy seriously doubted that. Writing envelopes he could do, but fixing a printer, faxing documents… he didn't even know how these things worked! But none of it mattered, because he still didn't have an id and the company Audrey's Mum worked at would never employ him without one. He remained silent.

"Percy?"

"I have no id," he finally said. There was no point in denying it, she'd find out soon enough anyway. In his stomach, a tight knot was forming, for he didn't know how Audrey was going to react.

"No idea about what?"

He shook his head. "Not like that. I can't work at your mother's company. I have no id. Why do you think Walker paid me under the table?"

Audrey stared at him. Then she burst in a nervous giggle.

"For a moment there I thought you meant it," she said. "Not nice, Perce."

He hung his head, waiting for Audrey to realise he wasn't joking. The knot in his stomach tightened.

"You're not joking," she eventually said incredulously. "What the…" She shook her head in disbelief. "You lied to me?"

"Audrey, I…"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"You líed to me?!"

"I'm sorry, I never intended for you to find out like this…"

"No? Then how hád you intended to have me find out? When were you going to tell me about it? No, don't answer that question. How could you? I trusted you! And all that time you lied to me! It's not even the fact that you're here illegally, I might have been able to live with that, but the fact that you never even told me about it, didn't care enough about me to tell me the truth…"

Each word she spoke was like a stab to his heart. He knew he had hurt her in keeping the truth from her. But he didn't have a choice; it was for her own safety, not to mention he'd break the Statute of Secrecy...

"It's complicated…" he started, but Audrey cut him short.

"What else did you lie about? Did you lie about us? Was this entire relationship a farce?" There were tears in her eyes and he felt them prick in his own eyes as well.

"No of course not! You mean the world to me!"

"Apparently not, otherwise you would've told me."

She made to leave and he grabbed her arm.

"Don't go. I know I was wrong, I should have told you, but can we at least talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about, for I have no way whether you'll be telling the truth or whether you'll spinning me lies again."

She jerked her arm out of his grip and stormed out. "Goodbye Percy. If that's even your real name."

The door slammed shut in his face and he heard her run the stairs. He threw the door open and ran after her.

"Audrey, wait! Please!"

She turned around, one hand on the banister. "I'm going home." She angrily wiped the tears from her face. "Please don't follow me."

She continued running down. Percy was frozen on the spot. He had never seen Audrey this angry and he knew that this time, he really, really had screwed up.

He ran back inside and threw open the window overlooking the entrance of the building.

"Audrey!" he yelled when he saw her exit. "Audrey, please!"

But Audrey didn't look back and then she rounded the corner and he could no longer see her.

He spent the first day smashing things in his apartment ("_Hey, mind the other tenants, will you, or I'll call the cops on you!"_) and the next five days trying to persuade Audrey to speak to him (_"I don't know what happened between you two, but she doesn't want to see you at this moment."_).

He wrote a letter to the Minister, sent it through the nearest Owlery and received a reply the next day (_"We would be glad to welcome you back to the Ministry. As it so happens, your old post has recently became vacant, so we'll be expecting you Monday morning, 8am sharp."_).

He tried one more time to talk to Audrey but with as much success as the previous days.

He apologised to her mother and said that he was going back and would not bother them anymore, and could she please tell Audrey that he was very sorry and had never meant to hurt her?

Then he spend the rest of the weekend cleaning up his apartment to have something to do to keep his mind off of how much he missed Audrey.

* * *

II.

On Monday morning, at 7am, he walked from his apartment to the Leaky Cauldron, his wand tucked into his sleeve and his robes in a suitcase. It felt strange to be going back to the wizarding world after having spent nearly half a year without magic.

However, the Leaky Cauldron still looked the same as it had done before and old Tom was still as talkative as ever.

"Can I use your fireplace, Tom?"

"Floo's right over there."

Percy took a handful of Floo Powder, stepped into the fireplace and stated "Ministry of Magic" like he had done so many times before. Moments later he found himself in the Atrium, which was already buzzing with activity, despite the early hour.

Still a bit hesitant, he headed towards the Minister's office, when the front page of the Da_ily Prophet _drew his attention. There was a large picture of Dumbledore and below it was the caption: _**Dumbledore remembered,**_ by Elphias Doge.

His jaw dropped. He picked up a copy of _the Daily Prophet_ and quickly scanned the page.

_Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, aged 115, died last week from a Killing Curse,_ he read.

"Morning, Weasley. Good to see you back. Where've you been the past six months?

The Minister himself pulled him out of his reading and Percy quickly lowered the _Daily Prophet._

"Good morning, Minister. It's good to_ be_ back. I want to apologise for the way I quit my job, you must think me not a very reliable person…"

"You're right, I don't. But I need a job done, and sometimes it's better to rely on competences rather than on likeability. In here please." He waived his arm and Percy followed him into his office, his head bowed.

"Take a seat."

He obliged, still nervous. "Sir, might I just say how very pleased I am to start working for you again?"

The Minister appeared not to hear him.

"Ghastly business, that," the Minister said and pointed at the _Daily Prophet_ Percy was still holding. "I wanted to have a word with you before you start with your work again, but I fear we have a funeral to attend first."

"What, today?"

"Today. We leave in an hour. You do have something appropriate with you, don't you?" The Minister looked alarmed at Percy's Muggle attire.

Percy nodded. "I have my robes in my suitcase."

"Better get changed then. We'll address the subject later."

Dumbledore's funeral was awkward, to say the least. Percy was in his ministerial robes, only just getting reaccustomed to the magical world, and he was by no means ready yet to face his family again. Yet of course they'd all be there, how could he ever think they wouldn't, with them being so close to Harry, and Harry being so close to Dumbledore? He couldn't handle the reproachful glares from his brothers and sister and the hopeful glances his mother sent him and the look of hurt on his father's face, so he focused on the funeral instead. His mind was racing. Maybe he could exchange a quick word or two with his parents after the funeral…

However, as it turned out, he never got the chance, for the Minister and the Ministry officials were the first to leave the funeral and it would look very weird if he were the only one to leave the Ministerial party on the very same day that he had resumed his work. He glanced over his shoulder before he left, but the only one who caught him looking was Ron and his eyes shot daggers.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In the next couple of weeks, Percy made several attempts to write his parents, but each letter he started ended up in his dustbin. He did not know how to begin. What would he write them? _Hi Mum, Dad, sorry for not speaking to you for so long?_ That just sounded stupid. He had not seen them in almost two and half years, so he didn't want to sound too jovial, but at the same time he didn't want to sound to pompous or distant. He just couldn't find the right tone, nor the right words.

His attempts to write to Audrey were even less fruitful. He felt guilty and he wanted to explain himself, but what could he tell her that would answer her questions, without revealing to her who – and what – he really was? _Hi Audrey, you didn't know, but I'm actually a wizard?_ She would surely freak out.

August 1 came and like he had promised Audrey, he sent Bill and his fiancée a card, wishing them all the best and a long and happy marriage, and after due consideration, added 'Please give my love to Mum and Dad' as a p.s. It was the closest he'd gotten to contact in years.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Since he had begun working at the Ministry again, things had changed. People were tense and court, which he could understand given the circumstances. Attacks were the order of the day now and every day there were new reports of people gone missing or getting killed. Aurors disappeared when on missions and the Ministry was guarded heavily against intruders. Every day he got to work, he had to undergo a series of security measures to prove that he really was who he claimed to be. Today, the Ministry was busier than it had been in weeks. He saw many people he had not seen before, and he figured they were new employees, which made him feel uneasy. There had been new recruits before, but not a scale like this, not with all the guards put up. He had a ghastly feeling that something was amiss. He couldn't really put a finger to it, but he had a sense of foreboding that something terrible was about to happen.

Around 8pm, when he was helping the Minister with the dull and monotonous task of answering letters from the frightened public, his gut feeling became reality. The door to the Minister's office flung off its hinges and he only had an instant to duck behind the desk before he saw a flash of green out of the corner of his eyes and the Minister fell down, dead.

"I think it can be concluded that our Scrimgeour isn't capable of performing his task anymore," he heard a voice say. "Such a pity. Luckily, we have Pius to replace him, don't we?"

Someone chuckled.

_Pius Thicknesse, Head of Magical Law Enforcement._ Percy had paid little attention to him lately, but in hindsight, the man had behaved oddly the last weeks. He recalled his glazed-over look and a chill ran over his spine. All that time that Ministry had been heavily warded against intruders, the real threat came from the inside… He reached for his wand. If he were to die, he would not die without a fight. He reached again until he realised with a shock that he had left it on the desk.

"Well, well, what have we got here?"

His heart was beating fast in his chest. He knew he was discovered. And without his wand, he'd go the same way as the Minister. Slowly, he got up.

"Weasley, isn't it?"

All he could do was nod.

The men exchanged a look. "That might come in handy…" one of them muttered.

Percy had no idea what they were talking about, but he had a fair feeling he didn't want to find out.

"Where do your loyalties lay, boy?"

"Mi-Mi-Ministry," he managed, hoping they'd leave him alone. He was wise enough not to comment on the 'boy'.

Pius chuckled.

"Quite helpful indeed. I could do with a Jack-of-all-trades who doesn't ask questions."

"Wait, what do you mea-"

His words were cut short when a spell hit him from behind. A strange sensation washed over him, a sort of numbness, erasing his free will. He knew what was happening to him and struggled against it as much as he could, but too little avail. Walls were closing in on him fast and in the blink of an eye, he was trapped. Trapped inside a hollow shell that used to be his body, but didn't feel like himself anymore. He moved his arm up mechanically when the Death Eater told him to, and when they told him to jump, his feet pushed him of the ground without him wanting to.

"Don't worry, you'll get to keep your job."

They barked with laughter, contented with their feat. They talked about his family, about their friends; about how Potter would most certainly be there, along with his 'sidekicks' the Mudblood and the Weasel and how the wards were down now that Scrimgeour was dead…

Fear clutched at his heart and he clenched his fists – or at least, he wanted to, but his body wouldn't respond.

"Stay right here, we'll need you later on," they said and disappeared in a whirl of black smoke.

Deep down under the foggy tentacles of the Imperius Curse tugging at his conscience, the part that was still Percy fought. He could not let them harm his family, or Audrey, or anyone he knew. But he was incapable of moving, and stayed exactly at the spot they had ordered him to stay at.

Tears started to roll down his cheeks. He did not know what the Death Eaters were going to do to his family, but the fact that he knew they were in danger and that he couldn't do a thing about it was eating at him. He wished he'd gone to the wedding, at least that way he could have made amends, shown them how much he regretted what had passed between them. But he hadn't gone, and now it might just be too late. He might never again get a chance to tell them how much he cared.


End file.
